Particular embodiments generally relate to the orchestration of business processes.
Business processes are typically modeled by business architects/analysts. A business process may include a series of services that are invoked during the business process. Services may be considered the smallest unit that can be modeled in the business process.
Some business processes may include a large number of services or may re-use certain sets of services. Instead of individually specifying each service that is used in a model, sub-processes are useful to specify a series of services. For example, a user may choose to include a sub-process in a larger business process. However, in an orchestration language, such as business process execution language (BPEL), it is not possible to use a sub-process unless the sub-process is deployed. That is, an information technology (IT) designer would have to have deployed the sub-process as a stand-alone executable process for it to be used by another business process. This restricts the use of sub-processes and decreases flexibility.
Also, currently, it is only possible to create BPEL processes in a BPEL editor and invoke a deployed BPEL process. Because the IT designer and business architects/analysts have different skill sets (the business architects/analysts are familiar with the business process being modeled and the IT designer is familiar with the orchestration language but not the business process), the resulting BPEL process developed by the IT designer may not work as the business architects/analysts imagined. Accordingly, there may be a wide divide between the originally conceived business process model and the implemented model.